Design Journal

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Advertising with AI

Coca-Cola recently announced that it will do an interesting experiment, they're going to use artificial intelligence to assist in the creation of advertising. They admit that the full removal of humans isn't yet possible. Algorithms and bots are all they will be able to use, for now. In what way could this change the way we experience ads in the future?

Keep in mind that this isn't the first time that AI has been used in advertising, as all those Google and Amazon ads are essentially artificial intelligence. Thanks to cookies, retailers know you were looking at a product, so it shows you an ad, in hopes that you'll buy. It's creepy sometimes, and sometimes you actually click those ads.

Now if Coca-Cola, the biggest and most ubiquitous brand to ever exist is hopping on the AI bandwagon, AI advertising could become common place. The shopping habits, tracking and all the other data collection being done in the retail industry is basically building to what could be on the horizon. Of course, retailers already currently use all that collected data and can create more relevant advertising, but analysts are no match for bots. The ad agencies of the future may be those data collection companies who hold the data that a company's bot needs. The bot will take care of the rest.

Furthermore, with the use of social media, ad bots could get a feel for what your perceived mood is. If it can tell you are feeling sad, it will generate an ad that could either play off that sadness, or maybe cheer you up. Either way they could win a sale. Which sounds like a sneaky, dirty tactic, but so are those sponsored posts you see on many websites.

If that ends up being the case, it could mean that the future may not even have ad campaigns as you know them currently. No broad iPad Pro campaigns across print and digital and no touting the 2023 Volvo driverless automobile. Companies could have millions of ad campaigns, maybe one for every person in the world. Your habits would be monitored and bots would react accordingly.

Advertisers keep a pretty good pulse on our culture, or maybe even influence our culture. Either way, A video ad taking place in a kitchen always features the most trendy layout and materials. Ads targeting millennials are spot on with whats popular on social media. It would be foolish if they didn't take advantage of technology and take your pulse, and show you ads that you just can't resist; because a bot built them specifically for you.